Wedding-Ready Legs

Written with love, by Kimberly Riegel Dore

Traditionally, a bride's legs are covered by a long wedding dress and rarely seen except when the garter is coming off. Nowadays, some women opt to change into a second dress during the reception which tends to be a little shorter and sexier. Whatever your dress style happens to be, I am going to give you some tips on how to get long, lean legs in time for your wedding.

The legs are comprised of mainly four quad muscles in the front, three hamstring muscles in the back, and two calf muscles. Below are a few options to get your leg workout started!

Stairs

Take the stairs! Not only are stairs incredible cardio, but they are great for toning the quads, the butt, and the hamstrings. You can run up the stairs quickly on the balls of your feet to get a calf workout as well.

A fun option is to change up how you do the stairs. One way is to run up and down quickly every single stair. Then on the next set do more of a slower walking lunge up the stairs by skipping every other step and dropping down into a lunge alternating legs.

Lunges

Speaking of lunges, there are many different variations but I will just focus on a couple different kinds that will help give you shapely, sexy legs.

When doing a basic lunge you will have one leg in front and one leg behind with a wide stance. Keeping good posture, bend the back need down towards the floor, but don't touch the knee to the ground. Try to aim for both knees to about a 90° angle and do not let the front knee go over your toes. The focus will be on the glutes of the front leg and the quad of the back leg. Be sure to do the same amount on each leg. You can make this harder by holding 10 pound dumbbells in your hands to really work the leg muscles.

Reverse Lunge to Front Kick

Start with both feet together. Pick a leg that will start the reverse lunge. You will step backwards into a reverse lunge, then pull that leg through to a standing front kick. The opposite leg will be your base leg that you stand on and will not move throughout the set. Stay with the same leg for high repetitions.

You should really feel the glutes of the base leg activating as you shift your weight from back to front. After you feel a good leg burn, switch to the other side.

 

One Leg Squat Touchdown

If this exercise is done correctly, you will definitely get a great burn in your glutes. This is a harder exercise since you will be balancing on one leg and bending over to touch the ground.

Start by choosing a leg to stand on and lifting the other one off the ground. Your first movement is to squat as low as you can on the base leg and shift your weight into your heel. Once you have done that, keeping good balance, you then lean over and touch down to the ground. Then using the force of your heel, push up to stand all the way back up.

Do not shift your weight forward and let your knee go over the toe. Keep your weight back and in the heels for glute activation. Do as many as you can on each side.

This exercise requires intense firing of the glutes and the quads for strength and the core for your balance. If you are a beginner to this exercise, you may not be able to touch all the way down to the ground. You can use a water bottle to touch as a modification. As your legs get stronger and your balance gets better you will be able to go all the way down to the ground and come back up. 

Stay tuned for Wedding Ready Legs part two next month where I will give you even more tips for long, lean, sexy legs! Happy leg training!

The "Shed Before You Wed" Plan

Written with love, by Leah Bahrencu

Are you ready to look and feel like a rock star in your wedding dress? Well it’s time to kick your health journey into high gear.  Make sure you’re following the basics and don’t make it more complicated than it has to be - you don’t need added stress.

Nutrition

This is the most important of all as it is 80% of the puzzle, so you want to make sure you’re eating clean foods, eating proper portions and fueling your body properly throughout the day.

Water

Every morning drink a glass of warm water with lemon.  This will help rehydrate your body, give your body an energy boost and it nourishes your body with vitamins and nutrients you need to start your day.

Also, make sure you’re drinking enough water throughout the day.  Drink half your body weight in ounces.

Portion Out Your Meals

Make sure you're portioning out your meals properly.  When you serve your food on your plate, your vegetable portion should be ¾ of the plate.  Too often we serve the protein or carbohydrate first and we make sure that takes up most of the space.  When figuring out what to cook, plan around your vegetable dish and NOT around your protein. Then you can decide what type of protein and complex carbohydrate you’re going to add.

You also want to make sure you’re not cutting out any food group.  Eat healthy fats, vegetables, fruits, carbs, protein and oils daily. You DO NOT need to cut out a food group in order to lose weight.  All that will happen is you will gain the weight back immediately when reintroducing it into your diet. Learn to portion control. If you ever need help figuring this out, I have a wonderful program that helps you portion out your food according to your body and also focuses on 30 minute workouts.

Grocery Shopping

This seems to be the trickiest of them all.  SO many options and labels that read “all natural” and “fat free!” Basically they are yelling “PICK ME!”  So here is a quick tip: When shopping you typically want to stick to the outer perimeter of the store, where you can gather your fresh produce, dairy products and meat. If you do have to walk in to the aisles, which we all know we have to, make sure you are reading the ingredients.  Basically if it looks like a science experiment, you’re better off without it.  Stick to the basics and the less ingredients the better.

Exercise

Sometimes we don’t have time to figure out what it is we need to do.  You don’t want to be just a cardio bunny, but need to incorporate strength training and flexibility training as well.  You need to have variety when it comes to your workouts. 

Here is a quick 30 minute HIIT workout to try.  No equipment is necessary!

I share tons of workout ideas and workout moves to try that require no equipment or minimal equipment on my Facebook page so you can check them out if you need any ideas!

Don’t forget, all these things tie in together to get you wedding dress ready.  So don’t focus too much on one over the other.

Bridal Basics for Your Best Year Yet

Written with love, by Rebecca Fisher

So it's week two of 2015 and that clock is ticking! Are you overwhelmed by timelines and deadlines? The key to being relaxed, feeling good and staying in shape is to simplify. Seriously, there's so much to read, organize and do as a bride-to-be! Thank goodness for having a coordinator! (By the way, I know an amazing one - if you haven't done yourself a favor and hired Jenn as your "Day Of Coordinator", in the very least!)

Stick to the Basics

1. Pick a style of a workout that feels good to you. Or try something new that can expand your sense of confidence and shock your body into a new way of seeing your body become fit! Maybe that means hitting the weights and being consistent in at least 20 min of HIIT Cardio or signing up for Cross-Fit. Or maybe you want to try Insanity or a P90X? This intense style of fitness that you can easily do at home with any schedule but that doesn't mean it's a piece of cake! Or it could be Hot Yoga or swimming laps..

But whatever you choose, commit to challenging yourself and make some real change that will strengthen you in many ways and the most beautiful you that you've ever known yourself to be, when you slide your svelte curves into your perfect dress!!!

2. Revamp your diet! 

C'mon! Get serious!! Keep the cheat meals to one small cheat meal per week! 

The low carb diets typically don't work for long, and will keep you from getting in shape. And going on a cleanse or a crash diet won't give you results that will stick for long and will leave you feeling depleted in energy and might even make you susceptible to getting sick when you need to stay at your healthiest!

You need to focus on simple balanced nutrition! Protein, good complex carbohydrates (think dark green vegetables with whole grains) and more water than you think you can drink in a day...try for a gallon! Think 20-30 grams of protein per meal (4-5 small meals) and 2-3 healthy snacks - apple and almond butter, fat free Greek yogurt, a handful of almonds. This is absolutely key to bringing your metabolism up to create a natural fat burner, as you stay committed to your workouts!

Start taking care of your body like it's someone you Love!

3. Sleep at least six hours per night. To be fit, you must rest the body and allow it to recover! There's so much going on as a bride-to-be, but you need to listen to your body! Start respecting that you get one body - consider it a gift.

Where do you feel tense? Where is your body tight or sore? There is a "good sore", which many don't recognize. However, recovery is essential and your peace of mind and feeling good about you and your body and whatever level of fitness feels right for you, starts with making your sleep zone an absolute sanctuary! Carry this into your "Bridal Bed" and way of being with your new life as a wife and be proud of your loving self care, and extending that to the one you love!

Workout Tips

Workout Tip #1: If you can hire a personal trainer, you will manage your time effectively and get a very efficient workout! If this isn't an option, make a point to commit with a buddy. Hey, what about that guy who asked you to marry him? Or a fun girlfriend...Maid or Honor?!

Workout Tip #2: Focus on alternating body parts, in consecutive days with 3 days on, and 1 day off. Switch up the types of cardio - stair master or treadmill intervals, or jumping jacks with push-ups in between.

Workout Tip #3: Commit to keeping a " Bridal Fitness Journal." Make notes of how you feel about your own journey, what you've overcome, staying free of judgement and self criticism and be bold enough to eliminate negative assessments about what you "haven't" accomplished. Just focus on what you can and are doing! 

Wishing you a wonderful start to the New Year - the best year of your life so far!